Certainly not "in vogue" and I don't know if it's feasible today. Still an interesting thought.

This is actually the first time i've seen a downvoted comment that i just, really can't understand why it was downvoted. Anyone care to explain?

For example, suppose I posted a comment irrefutably proving that Ruby was the worst programming language ever written. A year or two ago, I would have been upvoted for making useful observations. I suspect today I would be downvoted, because people like Ruby.

Note: I have nothing against Ruby. It is an example.

Just because most people disagree with a post does not necessarily mean it is not worth reading..

Pherhaps there should be a seperate disagree button but I don't see what purposes it would serve , when I read a comment I decide whether or not I agree with it , whether other people do or not does not matter unless they are pointing out factual errors.

For example, if I made an unsubstantiated statement that "Water is composed of Hydrogen and Nitrogen", that would be worthy of downvotes.

Where that gets tricky is when someone asserts something couter to common wisdom, but attempts to substantiate it. You then need to evaluate their defense first.

What really depresses is that they have a similar system on the comments for various UK newspaper websites (Daily Mail I'm looking at you) and you often find that the most uprated comments (which are then displayed at the top of the comments section) are arguments that allot of people may agree with but the arguments (and often the spelling) presented are just terrible and usually consist only of an Ad hominem attack on some person or organisation.

I generally find a thoughtful defense of an unpopular viewpoint a much more interesting read than somebody who thinks they are clever by posting some content free attack on something that is trendy to hate.

Ok, this rant is way off topic now and thankfully this sort of thing seems to be mostly absent from HN :)

That said, decent ergonomics are almost always a good thing. Even if you're not typing a lot, you'll probably still spend a lot of time looking at the screen. Having a bad setup maybe doesn't matter for your wrists in this case but it can still be detrimental to your eyesight and of course your back.

Maybe that's why sliverstorm got downvoted: there are good reasons to care about ergonomics even if you're not typing a lot.

(For what it's worth, my excuse is convenience: I'm working in lots of different places and I can't be bothered to lug around a huge notebook or an external keyboard. Before the age of notebooks I used to have a fairly ergonomic setup with a big screen and the awesome 1st gen Microsoft Natural Keyboard, and I often do miss it: maybe I'll return to such an "immobile" setup next time I have a job with a desk.)

I'm 33 and a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in my neck from spending many years hunched over looking at things. I am extremely near-sighted (legally blind, actually) and that's the only way I can see to do... well, pretty much anything.

I do a lot of stretching exercises now and have a ridiculously expensive pillow, which both help a great deal. I'd recommend them to people who do a lot of desk work.

http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/neck-pain/neck-stretc...

YMMV.

Occasionally an unintended downvote happens when someone on a touchscreen tries to scroll or upvote.

If I ever go back to my MacBook, I'll take the keyboard with me.

I have a tiling window manager. It has one tile.

The appeal of a mechanical keyboard stems from the switches under the keys that offer varied pressure curves, pressure thresholds, and physical feedback (depending on the switch type).

Both the apple wireless keyboard and MBP laptop keyboard use scissor switches which are the typical laptop keyboard switch type. Some people like this switch type, some people do not.

But if you're to say something like "it's easily better than a laptop keyboard" you can only make such a claim based on size or number/position of keys, since both use the same switch type. I'd wager a guess that the nature of the key switches is probably what your parent is interested in.

I'm sure it's a consequence of thermodynamics, but I can't explain it.

I've even started working comfortably using just one display now that I've changed to using a tiling WM. With a floating wm, I needed at least two large displays to work comfortably. Lots of that screen area was wasted just by showing a little desktop in between of poorly arranged windows. I'll never go back to floating windows with frames and decorations.

And which can also be a way to decrease productivity, with distractions etc. I am more productive on a smaller screen laptop than I am on a 2 screen set or even one larger (21, 27") screen. Mainly because it helps to focus on the task at hand.

We also didn't have 2 large monitors to each workstation back in the day, and somehow we did fine. Spoiled much?

As a programmer, you must know about diminishing returns, right?

The screen is just the right size to fit two 80x25 text editor windows side-by-side when full-screened. Swiping back and forth with Mission Control is almost as quick as switching your glance from one big monitor to another. Having your "mouse" right below your keyboard makes clicking something only marginally more time consuming than contorting your hands to hit an Emacs command sequence.

Probably still faster with the big setup, but I get a lot of mileage out of my little setup and I get a huge productivity/creativity boost from being able to wander around the house, head to a Starbucks, etc.

Mission Control is pretty fricking awesome.

I find that when I have 3 Chrome windows open in one 'desktop', when I swipe to the other one and click Chrome it sends me back to the main 'desktop' where the other 3 windows are.

I don't want to have to use Firefox or some other browser in my other space.

How do I use Chrome in both, or is that not possible?

It's great for keeping API docs open while I'm working without leaving my editor.

Having the center monitor on an arm just lets me adjust it's height when I move between leaning forward, slouching, or sitting straight, standing, etc.

A single monitor is limiting as it requires more context switches as I swap out windows in my viewing area. It's much nicer to just leave all the important windows open in a nice grid that spans multiple displays.

The only time I use the side monitors for anything else is if I'm following along with a screencast.

I just have found that if you want to read something, I prefer it to be on the center monitor anyways, so what's the point in having multiple monitors?

Plus, I prefer to work on my laptop screen, because it's more flexible - I can put my feet up, move around, change positions easier.

Just my own personal preference